The problem I had starting out, was following an exact process for going from an idea to a Minimum Viable Product.
Most importantly, I had trouble getting past my designs (PSD) being messy.
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Since you have an idea already:
- figure out what features your minimum viable product should contain
- throw out a whole bunch of those features, till there's just a few main ones, and you feel a little uneasy
- turn those features into screens (paper mockups). as few as possible.
- go from paper mockups to PSD's (photoshop). use dribble, themeforest, forrst, etc. for inspiration. especially the 'minimalist' designs
- or you could just use one of the 'admin themes' from themeforest. or 'bootstrap' by twitter.
- chop the PSD to css/html. This is where it becomes (sorta) 'REAL'.
- since you know basic java, I'd recommend you use php (almost similar syntax, and tons of help online) to hack together your first app
//---EDIT---
I see you're interested in Rails. Personally, with history in c, c++, dotnet & java, rails just seemed a little 'off'.
Since you're familiar with java, I'd highly recommend GRAILS:
http://grails.org/ as a viable/quicker alternative to rails.
//---END EDIT---
- don't stress about languages and platforms just yet. I'd spent weeks trying to figure out which framework would make me sound more technically proficient to a third party(investor perhaps?). The right answer always is, whatever gets the job done ASAP.
- consider using facebook/twitter for user account management. makes a lot of stuff easier
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One thing I'd fix going back, would be rewiring my process to having the PSD chopped first(and played with), before writing any server-side code.
Check out chapter 6 from 'Getting Real', by the folks at 37signals. [http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php]
The problem I had starting out, was following an exact process for going from an idea to a Minimum Viable Product. Most importantly, I had trouble getting past my designs (PSD) being messy.
-----------
Since you have an idea already:
- figure out what features your minimum viable product should contain
- throw out a whole bunch of those features, till there's just a few main ones, and you feel a little uneasy
- turn those features into screens (paper mockups). as few as possible.
- go from paper mockups to PSD's (photoshop). use dribble, themeforest, forrst, etc. for inspiration. especially the 'minimalist' designs
- or you could just use one of the 'admin themes' from themeforest. or 'bootstrap' by twitter.
- chop the PSD to css/html. This is where it becomes (sorta) 'REAL'.
- since you know basic java, I'd recommend you use php (almost similar syntax, and tons of help online) to hack together your first app
//---EDIT---
I see you're interested in Rails. Personally, with history in c, c++, dotnet & java, rails just seemed a little 'off'. Since you're familiar with java, I'd highly recommend GRAILS: http://grails.org/ as a viable/quicker alternative to rails.
//---END EDIT---
- don't stress about languages and platforms just yet. I'd spent weeks trying to figure out which framework would make me sound more technically proficient to a third party(investor perhaps?). The right answer always is, whatever gets the job done ASAP.
- consider using facebook/twitter for user account management. makes a lot of stuff easier
----------
One thing I'd fix going back, would be rewiring my process to having the PSD chopped first(and played with), before writing any server-side code.